CD Projekt is also anxious about letting fans down with The Witcher 4, but the team has a clear plan to “do justice to the legacy” of Geralt’s last adventure. The developers want to “maintain the philosophy” they had while creating The Witcher 3, all while tackling “new questions.”

There’s still no release date in sight—and we’ll have to wait a while—but CD Projekt RED is already stoking the hype for The Witcher 4. This time, a top studio exec addressed the fans’ burning question: can Ciri’s adventure possibly top the masterpiece that was The Witcher 3? The team behind Cyberpunk 2077 knows exactly what’s at stake, which is why they’ve developed a plan: “maintain the philosophy” that defined Geralt’s last journey and focus on answering “new questions.”

Narrative director Philipp Weber spoke with GamesRadar+ about how the studio is approaching its next major fantasy RPG. The team follows the online debates, with questions like, “The Witcher 3 was one of the best games ever—how do you top that?” And as it turns out, the developers are wondering the same thing: “I’m like, ‘Yeah, how are we going to do it?’” Weber admits.

Weber points out that The Witcher 3 is so highly regarded because of players’ “subjective” experiences, so it doesn’t make sense to try and “mathematically” outdo Geralt’s journey. It’s not about creating a bigger world, longer quests, or more branching storylines: “I think the way we want to do justice to the legacy of The Witcher 3 is to take the philosophy we had during The Witcher 3—how to make a game, how to care about these things, how to tell stories—and maintain that philosophy.”

“At the same time, there are new questions we want to answer, because this is supposed to feel like a true sequel; it’s not about repeating what we’ve done before,” Weber adds. “It’s really about having that healthy combination of moving forward and trying new things, but also doing justice to what was already there, not trying to surpass it.”

Weber even confesses that his favorite Witcher game is the very first: “I know a lot of people have a problem with it, but I love it,” he shares. That shapes his approach to Ciri’s story, too: “It’s about making sure some people truly love The Witcher 4—and hopefully, they’re the same ones who loved The Witcher 3, because our philosophy—how we make games, write quests, and what The Witcher means to us—remains the same.”

The Witcher 4 Won’t Break CD Projekt RED’s “Golden Rule” of Open Worlds

This isn’t the first (and definitely won’t be the last) time CD Projekt RED has teased The Witcher 4. The Polish studio has said its next fantasy RPG will draw inspiration from Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 to push the experience even further, and has promised never to break its “golden rule” for open worlds. In practice, that means every mission will have something worth discovering.

Source: 3djuegos